U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,208 discloses a heat shield having a metal box construction with a filling of fiber material and possibly also including reflecting foil layers. The known heat shield does not provide for any easy reusability of the separate elements of the heat shield. Further, the material expenditure and the weight of the known heat shield system are quite high. The thermal insulation of the known heat shield is provided by the fiber material filling. The metal cover of the box must be relatively strong, stiff, and therefore, heavy, for mechanical reasons, but provides only insignificant additional thermal insulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,591 discloses a similar heat shield system having several layers of metal panels which are constructed as a metal multiwall structure combined with one or two layers of high density ceramic fiber mats. For high temperatures these known panels are either relatively heavy or relatively thick so that they lead to a disadvantageous increase of the outer diameter of the aircraft or spacecraft or instead, require a corresponding decrease of the usable inner space of the aircraft or spacecraft.